Each week, The CSPH highlights information from some of our favorite sites that is relevant in the exciting world of sexuality. This week, we are focusing on five editions of The New York Times‘ “Modern Love” column.

Finding the Courage to Reveal a Fetish
“It’s hard to admit this. A few playful swats during sex seem fun, while serious spankings seem damaged and perverse. After years of pretending I was interested only in the occasional erotic swat, I finally had to admit it to myself: Although spankings do satisfy a strong sexual need, they satisfy an equally strong psychological one.”

You May Call It Cheating, but We Don’t
“And yet, being married to someone who likes that you want other people (and that they want you) muddles the question of whether to have that late-night drink. If the goal of avoiding extramarital temptation is to protect your marriage, but you have been led to believe that occasionally giving into temptation could be O.K. for your marriage — possibly even good for the home fires — what should you do?”

What a Scale Can’t Measure
“In the morning, we met again at the beach, where my body was on view. As we lay side by side and talked, I eyed his chiseled chest and taut stomach, feeling momentarily abashed. I could turn over and burrow myself more deeply in the sand, but why? I liked what I saw, and from all signs, this new man did, too, so much so that he would ask me to marry him, and I would accept, two years from the day we met.”

My Husband Is Now My Wife
“Over time I came to believe that my husband, as my wife, would be in most ways the same person: intelligent, compassionate, mature, with the same slim build. I’d had a relationship with a woman in my early 20s, so living as a lesbian was agreeable enough, though I mourned the societal ease we would lose.”

Bringing Home the Wrong Race
“Another friend of mixed Indian and German descent said, ”I’m a half-breed, so my parents were fine with any race, but they preferred — really told me — not to marry an American.”

”While you were being raised in America?’ I said, aghast.

She giggled at the ridiculousness of the statement, but nodded her head yes nonetheless.”